Radio Advertising Orpington

Radio advertising still remains an effective advertising mechanism when used correctly. Listeners tend to have an extremely close relationship with their local radio station and advertisers can use this to their advantage. In fact, local radio stations are often considered excellent mediums for small businesses looking to grow. Check the listings below for local radio advertising opportunities and related info.

How Does Radio Advertising Work?

Internet advertising spend outstripped radio advertising for the first time back in 2004, with radio advertising continuing to decline over the last couple of years. Radio advertising now accounts for 3.1% of total advertising expenditure in the UK, compared to 4.2% in 2005.

Despite this radio advertising still remains an effective advertising mechanism when used correctly. In fact, local radio stations are often considered excellent mediums for small businesses looking to grow. Listeners tend to have an extremely close relationship with their local radio station and advertisers can use this to their advantage.

Radio, the Internet, and Billboard Advertising

Traditionally people have viewed radio listeners as people driving in their car. This meant that the natural partner to accompanying radio advertising was a roadside billboard advertising campaign. Recent trends now show that increasingly people are listening to the radio when surfing the internet or whilst at work, which has seen advertising on the internet become another natural partner to radio advertising.

Radio advertising is often considered most effective when combined with these other forms of media. However, one way of advertising frequently overlooked is holding a radio competition. This combines radio advertising with a strong call to action as people enter your competition. For businesses on a tight budget this can be one way of avoiding the need to develop and extensive integrated advertising campaign.

The Components of Radio Advertising

There are two main aspects that make up radio advertising – the ad itself, and when the ad is aired – the airtime.

The Ad

The ad can sometimes be created by the radio station on which you are looking to advertise, but more frequently a specialist agency is brought in to design the ad. Naturally this is a very important aspect of your campaign. A good ad can increase the response rate by up to 500%, enough to turn a disastrous radio advertising campaign into a highly effective one.

Radio advertisements can take a number of forms, but there are some golden rules – see producing radio ads that get results .

The Airtime

First is the choice of radio station. Do some research – the most popular radio stations may have the most people but they probably aren’t the most cost-effective when it comes to reaching your target audience.

Next you must choose when you advertise. Commercial radio stations calculate their rates based on how many people are listening at the different times of the day. Therefore the early morning show tends to be the most expensive to advertise on, followed by late afternoon.

Deciding when you advertise will depend on your target audience and your budget. Research suggests that people must hear your ad at least three times a w...

Producing Radio Ads that Get Results

With the content of radio ads able to increase the response rate by up to 500% the creative is a key aspect of a radio advertising campaign. Creativity, doing something slightly different to the norm, is the main skill required but there are also a number of best practices that should be considered.

Shouting may be one way to get attention in the real world but it isn’t necessary when it comes to radio ads. You don’t hear presenters shouting so don’t produce an ad that has unnecessary shouting.

Like most advertising have one clear message. If your company has a number of different products don’t try to cram them into one ad. The message will simply become cluttered and people will mentally switch.

Listen out for how often phone numbers are mentioned in radio ads and it’s all too often. After all, consider how many times you have written down a number as soon as an ad has come on air. Put simply, people aren’t going to be writing down your phone number so don’t waste time mentioning it.

Whilst you shouldn’t waste time mentioning your phone number you should always mention your company name or web site address so that people can find you.

If possible, try to include some music but the choice of music does matter. In fact research shows that a bad choice of music is worse than having no music at all. It can be expensive to license well-known songs but ...

The Cost of Radio Advertising

Radio advertising is considerably more affordable than many people realise. Compared to the other traditional advertising mediums – television, newspapers, and magazines – radio advertising reaches target audiences at the lowest cost.

Recent research conducted by Millward Brown supports this view, with Justin Sampson, managing director of the Radio Advertising Bureau, commenting on the research:

“Radio is three fifths as effective as TV, but only one seventh of the cost. So radio can be a much more cost-effective medium than television for advertising purposes, if it’s used correctly.”

This affordability means that radio advertising is often the preferred mainstream advertising medium of small businesses. People feel very loyal towards their favourite radio station which advertisers can look to exploit, as Radio Works’ Michael Charnley-Heaton says:

“Radio is the ideal medium for small businesses as local radio listeners have a very close relationship with their favourite station and advertisers can benefit from this.”

The cost of radio advertising depends on a number of factors, the main ones being:

The Radio Station – it almost goes without saying that listener numbers are the main determinant of the cost of advertising on a particular station. Therefore try to choose stations that have the highest concentration of your target audience rather than the most popular stations.

Length of the Ad – the standard length is 30 seconds, with 10 second ads being approximately half the price of 30 second ads.

Time of Day – early morning and late afternoon are the most desirable times so are the most expensive.

Length of the Campaign – longer campaigns are more expensive but cheaper on a per ad basis. In general it’s best not to advertise on the radio for less than 4 weeks, unless it’s a highly intensive campaign.

Campaign Frequency – radio advertising relies on repetition so don’t have your ads spread out thinly. If you can’t afford high frequency ads consider advertising one week on and one week off over a couple of months.

The Type of Advertising – radio stations are flexible with what advertising options they have. For example, you can often sponsor particular shows or features, or run a competition on air.

There will also be the cost of the creative. A general rule is that developing the ad should cost no more than 10% of your budget – around £250 for small stations and £2,000 for some of the most popular stations. These fees include script writing, actors to speak in the ad, music and sound effects. However, if you’d like a popular song it can cost up to £25,000 in licensing fees.

To give you an idea of costs don’t expect to spend less than £1,000 per week w...

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